FIG. 4 illustrates a general configuration example of a clamping terminal. As illustrated in FIG. 4(a), a wire barrel (that is, swaging portion) 11 and an insulation barrel (that is, coated swaging portion) 12, which are U-shaped in cross section are disposed on a rear portion of a terminal 10. When the terminal 10 is connected to an electric wire W, a conductor Wa exposed by stripping an insulating coating Wb of a terminal portion of the electric wire W is inserted into the wire barrel 11, and a portion adjacent to the conductor Wa and formed with the insulating coating Wb is inserted into the insulation barrel 12. Then, in that state, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the wire barrel 11 is rounded inwardly and swaged by a crimper 101 and an anvil 102 of a terminal clamping device whereby the wire barrel 11 of the terminal 10 is crimped onto the conductor Wa of the electric wire W. The insulation barrel 12 is bent inwardly to swap and fix the insulation barrel 12 of the terminal 10 onto the portion of the electric wire W with the insulating coating Wb (refer to FIG. 4(b)). As a result, the terminal 10 and the electric wire W are connected.
There has been known that the above connection is liable to cause a difference in electric connection performance and mechanical connection performance due to the clamping quality of the conductor Wa and the wire barrel 11. Under the circumstances, there has been known a terminal clamping failure detecting device for detecting the failure during a process of clamping the terminal to discriminate a clamping state (for example, refer to Patent Document 1). In the terminal clamping failure detecting device, a pressure exerted on the crimper and the anvil during the clamping process is detected by a pressure sensor, and a pressure waveform detected by the pressure sensor is compared with a reference waveform during a normal state to determine whether the clamping is appropriately conducted, or not.
Also, as another evaluation method for the clamping portion, as illustrated in FIG. 6, a crimp height C/H and a crimp wide C/W of the conductor clamping portion due to the wire barrel 11 are measured by a dedicated micrometer, and whether the clamping quality is good, or not, is determined, for example, according to whether the crimp height C/H falls within an allowable range, or not.